Blackhawks, Investments and Bears, Oh My!

Happy New Year to everyone! 2007 doesn't have the cache of a 2005 or 2010, but the year of James Bond has arrived and hopefully you're expecting big things out of yourself this year.....or a bunch of really good small things.

Last Friday I did something ELSE that I hadn't done in a while: go to a Blackhawk's game. The Boston Bruins were in town, so it was a match up of two of the original six franchises. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_six There was a huge crowd there and the ticket lines for walk up sales were about 30 people deep. Though the Hawks were down 3-0 after one period and 4-0 after two, they came back with three goals in the first ten minutes of the third to make the game exciting. They lost 4-3, but it was a victory for the Wirtz family from a financial perspective, which is all they care about.....but don't get me started on them.

Saturday, after sleeping in, I went to my buddy Rich's party for his wife who graduated a masters program. If I'm not mistaken, I was the first non-family member there and the last one to leave. Rich is such a bad influence on me. :-) Now that I think about it, I might have been there for like 10 hours! Arrived before 4 and left somewhere in the 2 range. Wow, no wonder I was so tired on Sunday and why at 7 a.m. when they delivered my new television, I was pretty incoherent.

Briefly about the television delivery, I purchased my new plasma from Tweeter on Thursday evening and wanted to set up delivery as soon as practical. Turns out they deliver on Sunday and I found out on Saturday that they would be there between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. Who would have thought they'd actually be ringing the buzzer at 7! Ouch. They unhooked my old TV, moved it upstairs, hooked up the new TV, tested it, programmed it and gave me instruction on how to use it. Then, as they were leaving, one guy noticed this old pair of "rabbit-ears" like device that I had hooked up to the old TV at one time. He hooks it up to the back of my new TV and I can actually receive some stations in HD! Who would have thought? Best $60 delivery charge I ever spent.

So for New Year's Eve, I opted to sell my Bears tickets and go to two parties instead. Since I was driving (and because I was out partying on Friday as well as Saturday), I took it pretty easy on the celebrating last night. Though I appreciate the concern from those who asked me to take a cab (it is nice to be loved!), I probably passed two hundred people on my trip home that were trying to flag cabs. It was tough to pass them all up actually without offering them a ride (especially some particularly pathetic looking attractive women). The neighborhoods that I was visiting really don't get a lot of cab traffic, so if I was going to keep a schedule and make it to both parties, cabs were not an option.

Take THAT, NFL. Bastards. It was silly to move a game to the evening where one team had nothing to play for and the other most likely was not going to have anything to play for. Just silly. There were four or five better games on paper that could have been moved instead, including the game I suggested (Pittsburgh and Cincy) which ended up going into OT. Nice call boyz. The networks could protect two games, but that still left a bunch of other games that were more meaningful. And the Bears are just not good. At best I think we're a 9-7 team and possibly only an 8-8 team. They displayed that last night: can't consistently stop the run or pass and the offense can't play consistently mistake free. Run the ball and stop the run, that's how you win championships and Seattle is going to show the Bears that when they come to town and beat the Bears on January 13 or 14.

Finally, it's inevitable that people will ask me this time of year about investments and where they should put their IRA contributions or annual bonuses. So this year I'll just post the list of funds that I like, with their ticker symbols, and you can see if any of them fit your needs. These funds aren't for everyone, no fund is. Generally, these funds have superior management with low fees that produce above market returns over a period of time. Will they in 2007? As I've already said, I'm not Nostradamus. I have no idea if they will outperform the market or comparable funds this year, but I'm betting with them. Don't wait to make your IRA contribution by the way. After you pay your credit card bills, or if you know you'll have the money to do it, make your contributions asap. You'll thank me come the end of the year. Here's the list:

Weitz Hickory WEHIX

Dodge and Cox International Stock Fund DODFX

Dodge and Cox Income DODIX

Mairs and Power Balanced MAPOX

Mairs and Power Growth MPGFX

Stratton Small-Cap Value STSCX

Oakmark Select I OAKLX

Oakmark I OAKMX

Oakmark Equity & Income I OAKBX